FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The theme of the Giants’ postgame locker room was folding — as in the refusal to do so in many ways.

Antrel Rolle didn’t want the defense to “fold” in the face of this perceived mismatch with Tom Brady and the Patriots’ passing game. Tom Coughlin didn’t want Brandon Jacobs to buckle and drop him as he carried him in celebration. And Osi Umenyiora finished a question about this being the time of the season …

“We fold?” the defensive end said.

Well, yeah. But after Eli Manning bested Brady and the Patriots again, this time with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jake Ballard with 15 seconds remaining to give the Giants a 24-20 victory over New England, there was reason to believe things might end differently this season.

The Giants don’t plan on folding. Deal them in.

“Not this time, man. We’ve been through that too many times,” said Umenyiora, part of a pass rush that once again harassed Brady. “We have great coaching, great players and there’s going to be no collapse here.”

Credit a lot of people for allowing such talk in that locker room: Coughlin and his staff for getting this injury-ravaged team ready, Manning for backing up the “elite” talk, Jacobs for correcting his attitude, Ballard for making a leaping, 28-yard catch on third-and-10 on the final drive, Victor Cruz for drawing a 20-yard pass-interference penalty to set up Ballard’s touchdown, and everybody in white jerseys.

And credit Rolle, a self-proclaimed “cocky (guy),” and fellow safety Kenny Phillips for making some bold statements last week that indicated the Giants were coming to play.

“It’s a remarkable feeling, this team’s outstanding. This is why I became a New York Giant — to play in games like this,” Rolle said. “Everybody’s crunked, everybody’s swagged out, we went out there and we represented something.”

The Giants (6-2) are also representing a two-game lead in the NFC East, as well as the knowledge they became the first NFC team to win here since 2002 and the only team to win here, period, in 21 regular-season games.

“It shows a lot of people we’re for real,” Ballard said.

The first half showed that, as did the high-scoring second half.

The Giants got it going, thanks to two plays by their defense: an interception by Deon Grant and Mike Boley’s strip of Brady. The latter gave the Giants the ball at the New England 10, and Jacobs scored on the next play to give the Giants a 10-0 lead.

Later in the third quarter, Manning fell away from a pass while getting pressured by Andre Carter. Kyle Arrington came off his receiver for the interception in the end zone.

Brady capitalized by going 5-for-6 for 77 yards to lead an 80-yard drive, capped with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Hernandez to tie the game at 10-all.

It was, as Jacobs put it, a “dogfight.”

The Patriots bit next with a 45-yard field goal to take the lead with 7:08 to play. Back came the Giants and Manning on an eight-play, 85-yard drive, keyed by a 35-yard pass-interference penalty on Arrington, who contacted Mario Manningham.

“The last two calls were tough,” Pats coach Bill Belichick said of that one and the much bigger one to come.

On a third-and-5 from the 10, Manning hit Manningham for a 10-yard touchdown on a fade in the left corner of the end zone, just like last week against the Dolphins.

Giants 17, Patriots 13. Only one point for New England removed from the Super Bowl XLII final. Just one problem: a taunting penalty on Manningham forced the Giants to kick off from their own 20.

“You can’t do that,” an angry Coughlin said.

The Pats drove 64 yards, the last 14 of which came on fourth-and-9 when Rob Gronkowski broke left then right and made a falling catch in the end zone. Boley thought he pushed off.

“They bailed us out at the end,” Chris Canty said of the Giants’ offense.

They certainly did.

With 1:36 to play and needing only a field goal for overtime, they went for the win, telling each other they weren’t coming off the field without a touchdown.
Ballard’s catch over linebacker Tracy White allowed for it, as did a pass interference call on Sergio Brown, which gave the Giants the ball at the 1.

Two plays later, with no timeouts and only 20 seconds on the clock, the Giants had to throw it. A stuffed run would leave very little time for a hurried field goal.
Ballard got outside White. Touchdown.